River
by keemax
Summary: I couldn't think of a title. Traught one-shot inspired by a scene from a book. 'Why did every mission on a Monday ALWAYS take a wrong turn'


**This fanfic was inspired by one of my favorite scenes in a book called 'Wings' by Aprilynne Pike.**

**Actually, it might have been in the second book 'Spells'**

**I can't remember...**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

* * *

It was the psychotic laughter that made Artemis force her eyes open.

Her memory was hazy at best. She vaguely recalled the team being assigned on a mission to track down some drug lords in Gotham. They had to search around thirty warehouses altogether so it had been decided that splitting up in groups of two was the best option. Conner with M'ggan, Wally with Kaldur, her with Robin.

While she and bird brain were checking the 5th (or maybe it was the 7th?) warehouse, _something_ happened. She can't remember what it was, but it must have been something _really_ bad because the next face she saw, was the Joker's.

She remembered hearing Robin shout from another room and she fought viciously against her restraints to get to him, but to no avail. The clown henchmen just laughed at her vain attempts. She heard voices coming from the other room and she realised, _they were trying to get Robin to tell them something_. A valuable piece of information. But he refused to tell them and sounds of torture followed. Occasionally a rough shout would be heard and the maniac clown henchmen would strike her until she cried out in pain. This would cause Robin to scream out a protest, words becoming incoherent as he begged them not to hurt Artemis.

She doesn't remember how many times that process was repeated before she blacked out.

Which brought Artemis back to where she was now. As her vision began to clear, she glanced around her surroundings. She was in a dimly lit cave. Water glistened on the walls and stalagmites reached toward the floor below. If she ignored the sound of blood pumping in her ears she could almost make out the sound of a river.

She herself was tied to a large boulder, with thick heavy duty rope, balanced on a platform like thing with a broken edge. Beside her was Robin, tied to a boulder of his own, barely awake.

The Joker and his clown henchmen had stripped the two heroes of all gadgets and weapons. Leaving them in only their ripped costumes. Artemis was currently only wearing her green uniform top and her green uniform pants had been torn off at the knee, making them shorts. She was barefoot, no mask and her hair had been taken out of its pony tail so it messily flowed down to her waist. She had a gash on her left calf, a cut on her right arm and a sprained left hand. She was also covered from head to toe in bruises. Robin was wearing _less_ than she was. He only wore his uniform pants - that had suffered the same fate as Artemis' so they were now shorts - and his mask. Robin was also more severely injured than Artemis. He was decorated with cuts and bruises and wounds of all sizes, too many to count, as if someone had attacked him with a crowbar. Most of them seemed to have stopped bleeding, which was good, however he was struggling to breathe properly.

The clang of metallic footsteps focused her attention on the current situation. The leader of the clown henchmen (Artemis decided to call him Mace because he carried a giant mace around with him) stood beside them on the metal platform.

"The boss doesn't need you punks anymore." Mace announced to them. He sounded as though he were on the edge of a laughing fit and was sporting a grin that threatened to break his face. "Usually he would keep you around for entertainment, but he's too busy and you've already caused enough trouble." he stepped off the platform and pulled a trigger-thingy out of his pocket. "Farewell! hehehehehehHAHAHAHAMUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" and with a flourish he pressed the button.

The platform tilted, making the boulders slide over and off the edge. As if by some miracle, the ropes tying Artemis to her rock caught on the broken edge of said platform and were sliced in two. She barely had time to register this as the dark, murky and green river water rushed up to meet her and she sank straight to the bottom.

**ooo**

Artemis opened her eyes in the water. It was too dark to really see anything, but she could just make out the outlines of objects if she strained her sight. The ropes had fallen free, but she'd hit her head pretty hard on the boulder when she landed. Blinking in an attempt to clear her vision, she kicked up towards the surface.

She came up gasping for air, using all of her willpower not to sink back down into the river. Artemis forced herself to tread water as she tried to re-orientate herself.

They seemed to have drifted a little downstream ... they-

_ Robin!_ _Where was he?_ Artemis dove back into the water and looked around frantically. The last time she saw him he was still tied to that goddamn rock. Her mind was reeling and she started to panic, he couldn't hold his breath for much longer than she could! If she didn't find him in time, he would drown!

Wow, she never knew she cared that much about the Boy Blunder.

In the middle of her mini heart attack, she felt her leg brush against something that didn't belong in a river. It felt like.. a foot, could it possibly be Robin, or was she too late? She propelled herself up to the surface to take a breath of air before diving back down to see what she had found. And joy upon joy there was Robin, body restrained and figure slumped against his boulder, looking as if he couldn't last much longer...

Artemis thought fast, she didn't have a breathing tube and she couldn't make one, so...

She cupped both hands around his face, sealed her mouth over his, parted his lips with her own and blew. The archer ignored the increase in her pulse rate and the fluttery feeling in her stomach, now was _not_ the time or place for ... _emotions._

Robin tensed at first, before realizing it was his only chance of surviving, so he relaxed. Though, not completely. Even surrounded by cold river water, Artemis could still feel his cheeks burning against her palms. She'd be lying if she said that didn't make her feel the least bit smug.

When she decided that she'd given him enough air, she broke away and began to search the riverbed for a sharp stone to cut his ropes with. After a tough search, plowing her way through what she _thought_ was seaweed, Artemis finally came across a rock which she hoed be sharp enough to cut Robin's ropes. Turning back the way she had come, she kicked herself powerfully back towards the limp, and somewhat lifeless body.

Propelling herself to the surface, she once again gasped for air. Effectively hyperventilating to inhale as much oxygen as possible, before diving back down and giving Robin mouth-to-mouth ...again.

**ooo**

Artemis lost track of time as she sawed away at Robin's ropes, pausing only to supply him with air. She did notice, however, that at some point, giving Robin oxygen had become less like mouth-to-mouth and more like making out. His lips would move against hers as he strained into her touch and he'd frequently tried slipping his tongue past her lips. And yeah, it was kind of hard to focus when the Dark Knight's 16 year old trainee insisted on invading her personal space. Okay, fine, so maybe she'd invaded his personal space first, but in her defense she only did it to save his life. It's not like _she could easily found a plant or something to make a makeshift breathing tube out of, but she didn't because she found that she actually liked giving him mouth-to-mouth._ Of course not, that's absurd.

When Artemis finally managed to slice off the rope binding his hands, bird boy decided to use his new-found freedom direct her face towards his for a gentle lip-lock. If anyone else had done that, she would have delivered a hard blow to their gut. Yet strangely, because it was Robin, the archer found herself unwilling to hurt the boy. The lack of oxygen _must_ be affecting judgement. That _has_ to be it ... right?

After breaking away, she passed him the stone she had been using and broke the surface of the river to breathe. Doing a somewhat graceful dive to the bottom, she began searching for another sharp rock to use against the damn ropes. She didn't remember ever encountering seaweed that could swim, but she brushed it off, she had more important things to worry about.

Artemis smiled in triumph when she found a piece of the broken metal platform.

Returning to Robin, she sliced her way through the thick and heavy ropes, finally freeing him.

It was then that she finally spotted what had been grabbing at her legs while she had been searching for suitable cutting tool. Well, more like she saw the outline of it. Not particularly wanting to stick around and find out what it was, she hurriedly pulled him to the surface and dragged both their bodies out of the water and onto the river bank, panting with sudden loss of energy. She opened her mouth rant at Robin about, well _something_ (she didn't really know what exactly, but that's beside the point) when he grabbed her by the wrist and plunged her mouth onto hers.

Under the circumstances that they had almost drowned in a (frankly disgusting) river, Artemis might have just passed this off as him needing more air. (After slapping him a couple times of course) Except for the fact that they were now on dry land. Which meant that he was kissing her on purpose...

And even more surprisingly, Artemis found herself liking it.

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**Well, that was..._interesting_ ... to write**

**Especially since i wrote this with a friend of mine and she insisted that I replace Robin and Artemis with her and a guy she likes**

**Yeah, blame any and all OC ness on her**

**I think I'll go hide now**

**-Keemax**

**P.S. : I'm kinda new to the whole fanfiction thing (writing not reading) so if you guys have any tips on how I can improve, I'd really appreciate it.**

**I'm officially asking for your criticism. **

**- Keemax (again)**


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